Surprise!! And other birthday gifts

As I sat in the bathroom, my ever present cell phone is with me.  I search in the book "what to expect" to find out what was going on.  Probably would of been helpful if I had my glasses on.  I hollared for Larry to bring my glasses. A groggy "why" eminated from the bedroom but a "thing" emerged from the door holding my glasses.

I felt another gush and learned that my water did in fact break so I called my parents totally forgetting the time and my mother answered the phone "what is wrong."  I told her that she had to come down as my water broke.  Her "omg's" woke up my father.  Larry called his parents who headed to us to take us to the hospital. I called my sister forgetting, again, the hour but remembered my night-owl brother-in-law who I told and I swear I heard him smile through the phone.  Not sure if it is a smile that defines me as nuts or pride but whatever.

Roy said call "9 1 1" but Larry had called his parents instead. I called my OB/GYN who's service said to go to the hospital and as I was changing the on-call doctor called and said "yes your water broke, yes that was the plug.  Your son is certainly in a hurry so I'll meet you there."

So I finally get the courage to exit the bathroom, only because it is the only one and Larry announced he needed it.  I changed out of my favorite nightgown and got into outside clothes.  Very weird feelings were hitting me but more of "I'm not ready to be a mom" terror was slowly gripping me.  Its October 20th and Peter wasn't scheduled to show up until November 14th.

My inlaws showed up with their minivan. I cringed because I hadn't had the courage to tell them I couldn't get in and out of their car up until then.  I lifted one leg in to hoist me in and as fate would have it a labor pain hit, so as graceful as one could I collapsed half in and half out of the van laughing as I hear Bill Cosby say "whoa" in his "himself" monologue style.

Bill Cosby, Himself, "Childbirth"

My father in law, god bless him, made it to the hospital in record time and although I was quiet throughout the trip the labor pains started to hurt.  I slid out of the car and barely made it to a dry wheelchair, it was raining that night.

Got up to Labor and Delivery and they started to prep me.  I got into one of those gowns that never seem to fit no matter how anorexic you are and a I got into the bed a stronger contraction hit and I think Larry winced.  I was 50% dialated.  Not happy but they rushed me into the delivery room to give me my local and spinal block.  Nothing like fighting a full blown panic attack as you start to feel paralyzed from the groin down.

Larry comes in and I try to meditate as the panic attacks are getting stronger as I feel like I'm losing control.  He settles down at my head and all I want him to do is shut up because he is distracting me, sorry honey.  Larry and I both wonder when will the doctor finally start and with that the doctor on the other side of the curtain said "you are about to feel pressure as I remove your son."

I feel pressure, sorta like someone sitting on your belly, and then I hear a very loud and ticked off cry.  First it was Peter and then Larry.  I'm numb.  My son, my miracle, is born at 10:10 a.m. nearly 4 1/2 weeks early.

I didn't get to hold him right away, did get to kiss him but he was wisked to the NICU.  Peter was brought upstairs and I'm sewn up.  It wasn't until nearly 9:30 p.m. until I can see him.  However once I'm in my room I have to get up and sit in the chair to show I can go see my son.  It took a lot of courage and pain pills but I did it because I wanted to bond with my son.

My nurse said "boy you are determined, you will have your son for life whats the rush."  "11 years of trying and one miracle later, you'd be in a hurry too."  She took my blood pressure (140/80) and broke the speed limit to get me upstairs.

With Peter's feeding tube, C-pap, and various wires blocking my full view, my heart jumped into my throat and I fell in love with a 6 pound 12 ounce, 19 inch, strawberry blond little boy.  I was still scared but I knew I would do my best.

Overdoing it and other life lessons

The last few weeks of my pregnancy was hard.  Getting around was starting to become an issue and the weight gain was starting to toll on my psyche.  I was weighing in at 235 pounds, the heaviest I had ever been and it was hard to look in the mirror and not see a fat person.  Larry kept saying "your pregnant, honey, not fat."

Tuesday the 18th, I had gone to the bathroom and felt a splash and saw what I assumed was the mucus plug finally giving way as the book "What to expect when you are expecting" said that within a few weeks of labor it would give way.  Larry dismissed it and I figured I was losing it.

Almost every week I was going to lunch with my cousin Suzie and I looked forward to it.  The week of October 20th, I was in discomfort but wanted to go out and do things while I still could.  On the 19th of October, I went out with Suzie as usual but we went to a couple of stores and walked around.  She was concerned about my now size 9 feet (up from a size 7 1/2).  I was crampy but figured it was Braxton Hicks yet again and dismissed it.

That night we went to our lamaze/parenting class and I was very uncomfortable but dismissed it since we had missed the week before class due to exhaustion on Larry's part (lots of overtime).  Everyone in the class agreed that I might go early and I had pegged Halloween being the earliest.  We came home and to our surprise got a really close parking spot near the apartment building which was nice because I wasn't up for walking as all I wanted to do is go to bed.

We got up to the apartment and Larry helped me into bed.  Because of Peter's belly, I had to start the mission of getting out of bed when the urge to go to the bathroom hit not when when I felt like it as it was a production to get out of bed at that point.

At 3:35 a.m., I felt the usual pangs of "gotta go" and started to get up from my side position and with that I cussed as I thought I just wet the bed.  I jumped, at the best of my beached whale ability, out of bed and with that a gush let loose and I grabbed the towel and ran for the bathroom.

Larry woke up with a start and asked what was wrong as I hobbled quickly to the bathroom saying "I think my water broke."  Which a groggly Larry said "no it didn't you are imagining it."

Nope, it wasn't my imagination.  Peter decided he wanted to be a Libra not a Scorpio.